APPENDIX

REPLY TO LORD NORTH'S CONCILIATORY PROPOSITION

The Congress proceeding to take into their consideration a resolution of the House of Commons of Great Britain, referred to them by the several Assemblies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, which resolution is in these words: That it is the opinion, &c.,' opinion:

are of

That the Colonies of America possess the exclusive privilege of giving and granting their own money; that this involves the right of deliberating whether they will make any gift, for what purposes it shall be made, and what shall be the amount of the gift; and that it is a high breach of this privilege for any body of men, extraneous to their constitutions, to prescribe the purposes for which money shall be levied on them; to take to themselves the authority of judging of their conditions, circumstances, and situation, of determining the amount of the contribution to be levied :

That, as they possess a right of appropriating their gifts, so are they entitled at all times to inquire into their application, to see that they be not wasted among the venal and corrupt for the purpose of undermining the civil rights of the givers, nor yet be diverted to the support of standing armies, inconsistent with their freedom, and subversive of their quiet. To propose, therefore, as this resolution does, that the moneys, given by the Colonies, shall be subject to the disposal of Parliament alone, is to propose, that they shall relinquish this right of inquiry, and put it in the power of others, to render their gifts ruinous, in proportion as they are liberal:

That this privilege of giving, or withholding our moneys, is an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which, if left altogether without control, may be exercised to our great oppression; and all history shows how efficacious its intercession for redress of grievances, and reestablishment of rights, and how improvident would be the surrender of so powerful a mediator.

We are of opinion:

That the proposition contained in this resolution is unreasonable and insidious; unreasonable, because if we declare we accede to it, we declare without reservation we will purchase the favor of Parliament, not knowing, at the same time, at what price they will please to estimate their favor. It is insidious, because individual colonies, having bid and bidden again, till they find the avidity of the seller unattainable by all their powers, are then to return into opposition, divided from their sister Colonies, whom the minister will have previously detached by a grant of easier terms, or by an artful procrastination of a definitive answer:

That the suspension of the exercise of their pretended power of taxation being expressly made commensurate with the continuing of our gifts, these must be perpetual to make that so; whereas no experience has shown that a gift of perpetual revenue secures a perpetual return of duty, or of kind dispositions. On the contrary, the Parliament itself, wisely attentive to this observation, are in the established practice of granting their own money from year to year only. Though desirous and determined to consider, in the most dispassionate view every advance towards reconciliation, made by the British Parliament, let our brethren of Britain reflect what could have been the sacrifice to men of free spirits, had even fair terms been proffered by freemen when attended as these were, with circumstances of insult and defiance. A proposition to give our money, when accompanied with large fleets and armies, seems addressed to our fears, rather than to our freedom. With what patience, would they have received articles of treaty, from any power on earth, when borne on the point of the bayonet, by military plenipotentiaries? We think the attempt unnecessary and unwarrantable to raise upon us, by force or by threats, our proportional contributions to the common defence, when all know, and themselves acknowledge, we have fully contributed, whenever called to contribute, in the character of free

men.

We are of opinion it is not just that the Colonies should be required to oblige themselves to other contributions, while Great Britain possesses a monopoly of their trade. This does of itself lay them under heavy contribution. To demand, therefore, an additional contribution in the form of a tax, is to demand the double of their equal proportion. If we are to contribute equally with the other parts of the empire, let us equally with them enjoy free commerce with the whole world. But while the restrictions on our trade shut to us the resources of wealth, is it just we should bear all other burthens, equally with those to whom every resource is open?

We conceive, that the British Parliament has no right to intermeddle with our provisions for the support of civil government, or administration of justice; that the provisions we have made are such as please ourselves. They answer the substantial purposes of government, and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered. We do not mean that 959

our people shall be burthened with oppressive taxes to provide sinecures for the idle or wicked, under color of providing for a civil list. While Parliament pursue their plan of civil gov ernment within their own jurisdiction, we hope, also, to pursue ours without molestation.

We are of opinion the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory because it imports only a suspersion, not a renunciation of the right to tax us; because, too, it does not propose to repeal the several acts of Parliament, passed for the purposes of restraining the trade, and altering the form of government of one of the Eastern Colonies; extending the boundaries, and changing the government and religion of Quebec; enlarging the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty and Vice-admiralty; taking from us the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage in cases affecting both life and prosperity; transporting us into other countries to be tried for criminal offences; exempting, by mock trial, the murderers of Colonists from punishment; and for quartering soldiers upon us, in times of profound peace. Nor do they renounce the power of suspending our own legislatures, and of legislating for us themselves in all cases whatsoever. On the contrary, to show they mean no discontinuance of injury, they pass acts, at the very time of holding out this proposition, for restraining the commerce and fisheries of the Province of New England; and for interdicting the trade of the other Colonies, with all foreign nations. This proves unequivocally, they mean not to relinquish the exercise of indiscriminate legislation over us.

Upon the whole, this proposition seems to have been held up to the whole world to deceive it into a belief that there is no matter in dispute between us but the single circumstance of the mode of levying taxes, which mode they are so good as to give up to us, of course that the Colonies are unreasonable if they are not, thereby, perfectly satisfied; whereas, in truth, our adversaries not only still claim a right of demanding ad libitum, and of taxing us themselves to the full amount of their demands if we do not fulfil their pleasure, which leaves us without anything we can call property, but, what is of more importance, and what they keep in this proposal out of sight, as if no such point was in contest, they claim a right of altering our charters, and established laws which leave us without the least security for our lives or liberties.

The proposition seems, also, calculated more particularly to lull into fatal security our well-affected fellow subjects on that other side of the water, till time should be given for the operation of those arms which a British minister pronounced would instantaneously reduce the "cowardly" sons of America to unreserved submission. But, when the world reflects how inadequate to justice are the vaunted terms, when it attends to the rapid and bold succession of injuries, which, during a course of eleven years, have been aimed at these Colonies, when it reviews the pacific and respectful expostulations, which, during that whole time, have been made the sole arms we oppose to them, when it observes, that our complaints were either not heard at all, or were answered with new and accumulated injuries; when it recollects, that the minister himself declared on an early occasion, that he would never treat with America, till he had brought her to his feet"; and that an avowed partisan of ministry has, more lately, denounced against America the dreadful sentence "Delenda est Carthago"; and that this was done in the presence of a British senate, and being unreproved by them, must be taken to be their own sentiments, when it considers the great armaments with which they have invaded us and the circumstances of cruelty, with which these have commenced and prosecuted hostilities; when these things, we say, are laid together, and attentively considered, can the world be deceived into an opinion that we are unreasonable, or can it hesitate to believe with us, that nothing but our own exertions, may defeat the ministerial sentence of death, or submission?*-FORD ED., i, 476. (July 25, 1775.)

This is Jefferson's draft. Congress made several verbal alterations.-EDITOR.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

A court of inquiry held in Rhode Island in 1762, with a power to send persons to England to be tried for offiences committed here,* was considered at our session [Virginia House of Burgesses] of the spring of 1773, as demanding attention. Not thinking our old and leading menbers up to the point of forwardness and zeal which the times required, Mr. [Patrick] Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis L. Lee, Mr. [Dabney] Carr and myself agreed to meet in the evening, in a private room of the Raleigh [tavern], to consult on the state of things. ** We were all sensible that the most urgent of all measures was that of coming to an understar.ding with all the other Colonies to consider the British claims as a common cause to all, and to produce a unity of action; and, for this purpose, that a Committee of Correspondence in each Colony would be the best instrument for intercommunication; and that their first measure would probably be, to propose a meeting of deputies from every Colony, at some central place, who should be charged with the direction of the measures which should be taken by all. * * The consulting members proposed to me to move [the resolutions agreed upon], but I urged that it should be done by Mr. [Dabney] Carr, my friend and brotherin-law, then a new member, to whom I wished an opportunity should be given of making known to the house his great worth and talents. It was so agreed; he moved them, they were agreed to nem. con., and a Committee of Correspondence appointed, of whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Governor (then Lord Dunmore) dissolved us, but the Committee met the next day, prepared a circular letter to the Speakers of the other Colonies, enclosing to each a copy of the resolutions, and left it in charge with their chairman to forward them by expresses.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 5. FORD ED., 7., (1821.)

* * *

The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusetts, was the Boston port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the 1st of June, 1774. This arrived while we [Virginia House of Burgesses] were in session in the spring of that year. The lead in the House, on these subjects, being no longer left to the old members, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L. Lee, three or four other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing that we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts, determined to meet and consult on the proper measures in the council chamber, for the benefit of the library in that room. We were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen, as to passing events; and thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer would be most likely to call up and alarm their attention. No example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses in the war of '55, since which a new generation had grown up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the port bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King and Parliament to moderation and justice. To give greater emphasis to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. [Robert Carter] Nicholas, whose grave and religious character was more in unison with the tone of our resolution, and to solicit him to move it. We accordingly went to him in the morning. He moved it the same day; the 1st of June was proposed; and it passed without opposition. The Governor dissolved us as usual. * * * We returned home, and in our several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people on the 1st of June. † to perform the ceremonies of the day, and to address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances, and the effect of the day, through the whole colony, was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man, and placing him erect and solidly on his centre.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 6. FORD ED., i, 9. (1821.)

The Governor dissolved us as usual. We retired to the Apollo. agreed to an association, and instructed the Committee of Correspondence to propose to the corresponding committees of the other Colonies, to appoint deputies to meet in Congress at such place, annually, as should be convenient, to direct, from time to time, the measures required by the general interest: and we declared that an attack on any one Colony, should be considered as an attack on the whole. This was in May [27, 1774]. We further recommended to the several counties to elect deputies to meet at Williamsburg, the 1st of August, ensuing, to consider the state of the Colony, and particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should that measure be acceded to by the committees of correspondence generally. It was acceded to; Philadelphia was appointed for the place, and the 5th of September for the time of meeting.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 7. FORD ED., i. 11. (1821.)

Respecting the question, whether Committees of Correspondence originated in Virginia or Massachusetts? ** * You suppose me to have claimed it for Virginia; but certainly I have never made such a claim. The idea, I suppose, has been taken up from what is said in WIRT'S Life of Patrick Henry, page 87, and from an inexact attention to its precise terms. It is there said. "this House (of Burgesses, of Virginia) had the merit of originating that powerful engine of resistance, Corresponding Committees between the Legislatures and the different Colonies". That the fact, as here expressed is true, your letter bears witness, when it says, that the resolutions of Virginia, for this purpose, were transmitted to the speakers of the different assemblies, and by that of Massachusetts, was laid, at the next session, before that body, who appointed a committee for the specified object: adding, 'thus, in Massachusetts, there were two Committees of Correspondence, one chosen by the people, the other appointed by the House of Assembly; in the former, Massachusetts preceded Virginia; in the latter, Virginia preceded Massachusetts". To the origination of committees for the interior correspondence between the counties and towns of a State, I know of no claim on the part of Virginia; and This was the famous "Gaspee" inquiry, the date being a slip for 1772.-NOTE IN FORD EDITION. The invitation read June 23d. The name of a public room in the Raleigh tavern.

certainly none was ever made by myself. I perceive, however, one error, into which memory had led me. Our Committee for national correspondence, was appointed in March, '73, and I well remember, that going to Williamsburg, in the month of June following, Peyton Randolph, our chairman, told me that messengers bearing dispatches between the two States, had crossed each other by the way, that of Virginia carrying our propositions for a committee of national correspondence, and that of Massachusetts, bringing, as my memory suggested, a similar proposition. But here I must have misremembered; and the resolutions brought us from Massachusetts, were probably those you mention of the town-meeting of Boston, on the motion of Mr. Samuel Adams, appointing a committee to state the rights of the colonists, and of that province in particular, and the infringements of them; to communicate them to the several towns, as the sense of the town of Boston, and to request, of each town, a free communication of its sentiments on the subject." I suppose, therefore, that these resolutions were not received, as you think, while the House of Burgesses was in session in March, 1773, but a few days after we rose, and were probably what was sent by the messenger, who crossed ours by the way. They may, however, have been still different. I must, therefore, have been mistaken in supposing, and stating to Mr. Wirt, that the proposition of a committee for national correspondence was nearly simultaneous in Virginia and Massachusetts.-To SAMUEL A. Wells. i, 115. FORD ED., X, 127. (M., 1819.)

A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA*

Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said deputies, when assembled in General Congress, with the deputies from the other States of British America, to propose to the said Congress, that an humble and dutiful address be presented to his Majesty, begging leave to lay before him, as Chief Magistrate of the British Empire, the united complaints of his Majesty's subjects in America: complaints which are excited by many unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations, attempted to be made by the legislature of one part of the empire, upon the rights which God, and the laws have given equally and independently to all. To represent to his Majesty that these, his States, have often individually made humble application to his imperial throne, to obtain, through its intervention, some redress of their injured rights; to none of which was ever even an answer condescended. Humbly to hope that this, their joint address, penned in the language of truth, and divested of those expressions of servility, which would persuade his Majesty that we are asking favors, and not rights, shall obtain from his Majesty a more respectful acceptance: and this his Majesty will think we have reason to expect, when he reflects that he is no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers, to assist in working the great machine of government, erected for their use, and, consequently, subject to their superintendence; and, in order that these, our rights, as well as the invasions of them, may be laid more fully before his Majesty, to take a view of them, from the origin and first settlement of these countries.

To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as, to them, shall seem most likely to promote public happiness. That their Saxon ancestors had. under this universal law, in like manner, left their native wilds and woods in the North of Europe, had possessed themselves of the Island of Britain, then less charged with inhabitants, and had established there that system of laws which has so long been the glory and protection of that country. Nor was ever any claim of superiority or dependence asserted over them, by that mother country from which they had migrated; and were such a claim made, it is believed his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down the sovereignty of their State before such visionary pretensions.

And it is thought that no circumstance has occurred to distinguish, materially, the British from the Saxon emigration. America was conquered, and her settlements made and firmly established, at the expense of individuals, and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that settlement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. No shilling was ever issued from the public treasures of his Majesty, or his ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after the Colonies had become established on a firm and permanent footing. That then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain for her commercial purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend them assistance against an enemy who would fain have drawn to herself the benefits of their commerce, to the great aggrandizement of herself, and danger of Great Britain. Such assistance, and in such circumstances, they had often before given to Portugal and other allied States, with whom they carry on a commercial intercourse. Yet these States never supposed, that by calling in her aid, they thereby submitted themselves to her sovereignty. Had such terms been proposed. they would have rejected them with disdain, and trusted for better, to the moderation of their enemies, or to a vigorous exertion of their own force. We do not, however, mean to underrate those aids, which, to us, were doubtless valuable, on whatever principles granted; but we would show that they cannot give a title to that authority which the British Parliament would arrogate over us and that may amply be repaid by our giving to the inhabitants of Great Britain such exclusive privileges in trade as may be advantageous to them, and, at the same time, not too restrictive to ourselves. That settlement having been thus effected in the wilds of America, the emigrants thought proper to adopt that system of laws, under which they had hitherto lived in the mother country, and to continue their union with her, by submitting themselves to the same common sovereign, who was thereby made the central link, connecting the several parts of the empire thus newly multiplied.

But that not long were they permitted, however far they thought themselves removed from the hand of oppression, to hold undisturbed the rights thus acquired at the hazard of their lives and loss of their fortunes. A family of princes was then on the British throne, whose treasonable crimes against their people, brought on them, afterwards, the exertion of those sacred and sovereign rights of punishment, reserved in the hands of the people for cases of extreme necessity, and judged by the constitution unsafe to be delegated to any other judicature. While every day brought forth some new and unjustifiable exertion of power over their subjects on that side of the water, it was not to be expected that those here, much less able at that time to oppose the designs of despotism, should be exempted from injury. Accordingly, this country which had been acquired by the lives, the labors, and fortunes of individual adventurers, was by these Princes, several times, parted out and distributed among the favorites and followers of their fortunes; and, by an assumed right of the Crown alone, were erected into distinct and independent governments; a measure which, it is believed, his Majesty's prudence and understanding would prevent him from imitating at this day; as no exercise of such power, of dividing

*The SUMMARY VIEW was not written for publication. It was a draft I had prepared for a petition to the King, which I meant to propose in my place as a member of the convention of 1774. Being stopped on the road by sickness, I sent it on to the Speaker, who laid it on the table for the perusal of the members. It was thought too strong for the times, and to become the act of the convention, but was printed by subscription of the members, with a short preface written by one of them. If it had any merit, it was that of first taking our true ground, and that which was afterwards assumed and maintained.-TO JOHN W. CAMPv, 465. FORD ED., ix, 258. (M., Aug. 1809.)

BELL.